Wednesday, April 10, 2013

A new adventure, 3D printing

This is only the first of many posts to come. I've ordered a 3D printer, of sorts. More like a pile of parts.

The most common 3D printer design among hobbyists, is the completely open Prusa Mendel. One company sells all of the common parts for a base model as a kit. Not a bad deal if you're inclined towards building things. Their main page is nwreprap.com if you are interested in going this route.

I will be chronicling my build in this blog, with updates and photos. After the project is complete, I will continue to post updates about modifications, improvements, and projects I accomplish with the 'printer'.

People call them 3D printers, but really, they are additive cnc machines. Moving a tool head, the extruder, around using the same technique and programming code that industrial milling machines use.

I'm currently waiting for the parts to arrive. Spending my time researching, planning, and learning software. I'll dedicate a post this weekend to software, there's a lot of ground to cover there.